Historia Trium Regum (c. 1364-1375)

John of Hildesheim's Historia Trium Regum links Prester John, St. Thomas, and the Three Magi in a single text for the first time. In the narrative, Prester John, the secular ruler of India, so-called in reverence of John the Evangelist and John the Baptist, rules in tandem with a  “Patriarch Thomas,” modeled on the Apostle Thomas, who acts as the spiritual leader of India. The narrative also extrapolates on the Magi legends, which had circulated around Germany since the time of the original Prester John Letter. In the Historia Trium Regum it is the three Magi who, upon the death of the Apostle Thomas, inaugurate the tradition of this dual leadership.

Once writers begin to fill out the back-story of the Magi with additional literary flourish, a narrative tradition that culminates in the Historia Trium Regum, Prester John was given a plausible lineage that helped stabilize his historical existence.

For more on the connection between the Prester John and Magi traditions, see Hamilton.

Read an early English translation online.